Sharepoint: I’m starting to see the point
{ November 8th, 2006 }
Sharepoint: I’m starting to see the point
I saw a blog post the other day in reference to Windows Sharepoint Services. The author complained about the lack of tangible messaging around Microsoft Sharepoint Services. The post, entitled, “What The heck is Sharepoint 2007”, by John Newton, contained the following:
“You are not told what Sharepoint is; you are told what Sharepoint does . . . I don’t know. No one does, and Microsoft isn’t telling. I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you once you pay. You see, that’s how proprietary software works: pay first, struggle with it later. Buy before you try.”
Well this is bit cynical and honestly I haven’t quoted all of article but he has a point. I see words like ‘collaborate’, ‘share’, ‘increase productivity’ which could easily be used to describe almost anything, including several other Microsoft products. And who could argue with those virtues? The only person I know who isn’t inclined to share, collaborate or be productive is my two-year old son.
Today we launched a Beta of Windows Sharepoint Services 2007 (the hosted version not to be confused with Portal Server), so I think I’m in a position to tell you what it does:
- Windows Sharepoint Services is a platform used to host password-protected sites.
- Those sites are designed primarily as secure, document repositories – has anyone in your organization ever said, “we need an intranet”, well that’s what Sharepoint does very well and it doesn’t require programming.
- The administrator can decide who has access and how much access (just read or can they modify a document), and everyone can be informed when a document has been updated via email notification.
Of course there’s a lot more to it but that’s the basics of Windows Sharepoint Services 2003. The latest version, 2007, goes much further. Coming in January, Microsoft will be providing tons of ‘templates’ but I think that’s a misleading name that doesn’t do it justice. Templates imply ‘skins’ or design layers. The templates Microsoft is releasing are actually applications. There’s a CRM application coming, an HR application, a product management application, and many more, each developed with a specific function in mind.
The market for these functions are small-to-medium-sized businesses who don’t need, or can’t afford Enterprise applications. They need a subset of the features saleforce.com offers and have a fraction of the budget.
With this release of Windows Sharepoint Services I think Microsoft is truly delivering on the SaaS promise (Software as a Service) and making it accessible to those who need it the most. And contrary to what the above author says, Microsoft isn’t going to sell this to you, it’s hosting companies like us who have no interest in ‘tricking’ you into a sale when you can cancel as easily as you signed up. Services on demand can be cancelled on demand.
John Carthy
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.
V.P. of Sales and Marketing
Categories: SoftCom, mail2web.com ~ ~ Trackback
November 10th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
John,
I couldn’t have said it better. I applaud your response to this knucklehead for knocking Microsoft. Some people fail to remember that Microsoft is the reason we even have the ability to communicate worldwide.
If we take time to and their check customer knowledge base, we can find the answer to ANY of our questions regarding ANY product or service they offer.
Side Note:
1. Their online training is second to none
2. Bugs/errors are corrected and reported by them as soon as possible.
Thanks again and keep up the good work,
Sylvia
November 16th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Tim,
What do you think of http://docs.google.com ?
If I am not mistaken, it does achieve the same things really and it’s free. It doesn’t have industrial strengh (or does it) in terms of flexibility and so on but I think it probably covers a lot of collaboration needs out there.
November 16th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Apologies John, just saw you wrote this article. I hadn’t looked and assumed it was from Tim
November 16th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
No problem,
I’m familiar with docs.google.com but it’s mainly a lightweight spreadsheet application - a light, web-based version of Excel. Docs.google.com does have some collaboration features but I don’t see this competing with Sharepoint.
I saw someone in the market recently refer to Sharepoint as ‘Office Workspace’. I thought this wasn’t a bad description. Sharepoint is a secure place to store all office docs, has version control, notifies users when changes are made and can provide a range of permissions for each user. But it’s not trying to replace the individual applications of Office. The next version will provide new applications but nothing to replicate the functions of Office.
Moreover, it’s portable.
Personally If I had a spreadsheet of all employee salaries I would be comfortable putting in a Sharepoint site but I don’t think I’d copy & paste into the Google application. Sharepoint doesn’t index content:-)
November 16th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
I agree with John’s points.
Although Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Gmail (aka “Google Office”) might be suitable for some individuals and small businesses, it really doesn’t have all the options that Hosted Exchange, SharePoint and Office have.
For starters, who do can you call or email at Google for support when things go wrong or you need help? Do you really want ads inside all of your applications? Perhaps you have some documents or spreadsheets which are too confidential to share with Google, or that you want to keep entirely offline? And what about using your own corporate domain or corporate brand? I believe that these are just a few of the questions that set the two apart.
Not to say that Google doesn’t offer good free products, but there are some significant differences.